Books, especially textbooks, have always been a core part of education and continue
to dominate teaching and learning in Ghana. As far back as 1963 the government
of newly independent Ghana introduced a free textbooks scheme for
elementary schools. Under the scheme, government developed, produced and
distributed textbooks to schools. The scheme operated under successive governments
in various guises until 2002 when a new Textbook Development and
Distribution Policy for Basic Education in Ghana was announced (Ministry of
Education, 2002).
The new policy also supplies free textbooks to basic schools; however it allows
private sector involvement in the writing, publishing, printing and production,
and distribution of textbooks to schools. The Curriculum Research and Development
Division (CRDD), of the Ghana Education Service (GES) evaluates,
selects and recommends textbook projects submitted by private publishers for
purchase by government and the first major purchase under this new scheme
was made at the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year which commenced
in September 2005.
In spite of their seminal role in basic education, there is very little information
available about what is in the textbooks and the actual interaction between
teachers, pupils and texts and how such interactions contribute to learning in
classrooms in Ghana. This chapter then, explores the role of textbooks in language
and literacy learning in a multilingual classroom in Ghana. The aims are
two-fold: to investigate the characteristics of an English textbook (the Gateway
to English series) that facilitate the pupils’ literacy development and learning;
and to explore how the textbook is used in the real classroom situation for literacy
learning.